Title

Problem linking tables- reference doesn't work.

Post

I'm looking for someone to review my file to try and identify what the problem is. I'm designing a VERY basic donor management database for a non-profit organization. I have 2 tables. The first is called "donor" and contains a donorID field along with other personal info (name,address...) The second table is called "donation" and contains the donorID field and information such as donation amount, donation date and others. I've linked the donorID field which is autogenerated in the "donor" table. I've experimented with different methods of trying to display information from related tabled but nothing seems to work. One of my layouts called "Receipt" is supposed to display a combination of information from both tables and it won't work properly.

What I'd like to have is the ablity to enter new donors in the Donor layout. Then I can go to the "Donation" layout and add new donations based by selecting a name of one of the donors. ( I've been able to do this by creating a pop up menu referencing a value list- this part works) This way, I can create donations independently of the donor, meaning a donation record isn't automatically created when I create a donor record. I've been able to do this succesfully.

The problem is with the Receipt layout. If I create a field in the "donation" table called nameFull (corresponding to the same field in the "donor" table), I'm able to display a receipt with an appropriate donation amount,date,type AND name. However, I am not able to display any of the other information from the "donor" table such as address, city, province,postal code...

In the Receipt layout, go to Layout Mode (from the View menu). On the left side of the screen, drag the Field tool onto the layout and let go. FileMaker Pro will then prompt you for the field name. At the top is the name of the current table "Donation". Click on this drop down and select "Donor". Now, the fields from Donor appear. For now, just select the Address field. Go to Browse Mode and you should now see the address. Repeat the steps for the City, Province, Postal Code and any other fields you want to appear on the Receipt layout.

It sounds like your key field is the Name field; not the donorID field. You may want to switch this in your relationship. That way, when you select the name from the pop-up list, all the other fields display automatically.

I just changed the link to nameFull in both tables. I then went to the "donation" layout and created five records for Jim Butkiss with different amounts. I then switched back to the Donor information table, and there are five entries in the portal for Jim Butkiss.